Season of Renewal
Weekly reflections from the ReSource Lent course
Week One : Season of change
Mark 1.10 reads: Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
Mark 15.37-38 reads: Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
These verses come at the beginning and end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. In both cases the Holy Spirit comes. In both cases Mark talks about the heavens being torn. In Greek the verb is ‘schizo’, from which we get our words ‘schizophrenic’ and ‘schism’. It’s a violent, sudden verb - as if Mark is saying that there is now a hole torn in heaven, a hole which enables us to see through into a spiritual realm previously hidden to us, into a new dimension which completes reality as we know it.
Have you ever had an experience like that?
Romans 12.1-2, The Message
What might that mean for you, this week?
A prayer from Charles de Foucauld:
My Father
I abandon myself to you,
Do with me as you will.
Whatever you may do with me
I thank you.
I am prepared for anything,
I accept everything
Provided your will is fulfilled in me
And in all creatures.
I ask for nothing more
my God.
I place my soul in your hands.
I give it you, my God,
with all the love of my heart
because I love you.
And for me it is a necessity of love,
this gift of myself,
this placing of myself in your hands
without reserve
in boundless confidence,
because you are
my Father.
Can you pray it?
Luke 19.28-40 tells the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Jesus was riding into a city which he knew would welcome him only superficially. He knew that it was a place where God would not be recognised or honoured - and yet he was prepared to go there.
Think of the place where you live. Are there any new ways in which the Christian community could ride out like Jesus from its safe places and do uncomfortable things in order to serve those who live and work there?
John 20.19-23 reads:
When it was evening on that day, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.
Rejoice; receive; be sent. Can you embrace all three?
Blessed is the man who
trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17.7-8
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17.7-8
What does that mean for
you?
Week Two: Praying with Jesus
Mark 1.10 reads: Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
Mark 15.37-38 reads: Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
These verses come at the beginning and end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. In both cases the Holy Spirit comes. In both cases Mark talks about the heavens being torn. In Greek the verb is ‘schizo’, from which we get our words ‘schizophrenic’ and ‘schism’. It’s a violent, sudden verb - as if Mark is saying that there is now a hole torn in heaven, a hole which enables us to see through into a spiritual realm previously hidden to us, into a new dimension which completes reality as we know it.
Have you ever had an experience like that?
Week Three : All Things New
'So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.'What might that mean for you, this week?
Week Four : Depending on the Holy Spirit
A prayer from Charles de Foucauld:
I abandon myself to you,
Do with me as you will.
Whatever you may do with me
I thank you.
I am prepared for anything,
I accept everything
Provided your will is fulfilled in me
And in all creatures.
I ask for nothing more
my God.
I place my soul in your hands.
I give it you, my God,
with all the love of my heart
because I love you.
And for me it is a necessity of love,
this gift of myself,
this placing of myself in your hands
without reserve
in boundless confidence,
because you are
my Father.
Can you pray it?
Week Five : Made new for mission
Luke 19.28-40 tells the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Jesus was riding into a city which he knew would welcome him only superficially. He knew that it was a place where God would not be recognised or honoured - and yet he was prepared to go there.
Think of the place where you live. Are there any new ways in which the Christian community could ride out like Jesus from its safe places and do uncomfortable things in order to serve those who live and work there?
Week Six :Celebrating the kingdom
John 20.19-23 reads:
When it was evening on that day, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.
Rejoice; receive; be sent. Can you embrace all three?
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